30 July 2004

I recently finished a book titled "The Da Vinci Code" and I must say that it was really fantastic!

The twists in the story were really clever, but the most fascinating aspect of the story was the conspiracy theory on Christianity. And much of the clues revolving around it came from the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Basically, the conspiracy theory has it that Catholism has been covering the truth about the Holy Grail for as long as it has been. And common misconceptions of Paganism were actually caused by this effort. Catholism was sort of a chauvinistic faith while in Paganism, there was use of the pentacle, goddess worship and worship of a fertility god that had horns.

So Catholism somehow didn't like the idea of a female worshipping religion. Consequently, one thing led to another, the pentacle became a symbol of Satanism and the horned fertility god became the image of Satan.

And back to the Christianity part, and where things fall in place for the book. First, the parties involved: Jesus Christ, Mary Magdeline, the Bible, Leonardo Da Vinci.

First up, Jesus Christ. Quite clear cut. The Saviour, the Messiah.

Next, Mary Magdeline. It is claimed that Mary Magdeline was a prostitute. The conspiracy theory says that it is not so; there is no documentation that she was and she could have well been of sort of a royal descent. Catholism somehow created the perception the she was a prostitute. The reason of the conspiracy theory, I'll get to that later.

The Bible was actually compiled almost 300 years after Christ's crucification, courtesy of Rome's first Christian ruler, Constantine. The argument is that the winners write the history. And the Chalice, the Holy Grail may have been used as a metaphor to represent something else.

Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpieces the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Maddonna on the Rocks and Virgin on the Rocks come under scutiny. The theory is that Leonardo Da Vinci left clues in these works. The Last Supper somehow contradicted the verses in the Bible. There was mention of a cup holding wine being shared, but the picture showed that there was no cup. And the person next to Jesus Christ may have been a woman. One thing leads to another and there is speculation that Jesus and Mary may have been married with children. And the children have multiplied in numbers through the times and actually exist today.
(Thoughts about this command where it says go forth into the lands and multiply in numbers. Jesus being the Teacher, might he have, well, led by example?)

And the theory goes on.

Is it true?
To me, probably not. But it did bring me closer to understanding my faith, which is definitely more important.